


the most innocent of creatures

by surrenderer



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: M/M, Millicent the Cat Ships It (Star Wars), Pets, Pre-Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-06
Updated: 2021-02-06
Packaged: 2021-03-18 18:21:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,563
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29247954
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/surrenderer/pseuds/surrenderer
Summary: “Lord Ren. You had something to tell me? That couldn’t be sent via the private channels?”“You should see for yourself,” Ren says, and backs away from the door enough to let Hux step inside.For Year of Kylux: Millicent Week!
Relationships: Armitage Hux/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 13
Kudos: 74
Collections: Year of Kylux





	the most innocent of creatures

**Author's Note:**

> [Happy birthday, Millicent!](https://archive.nerdist.com/the-best-force-awakens-fan-fiction-yet-general-huxs-a-pet-cat/)

Hux’s shift is progressing normally—or as normally as any shift on a ship the size of the _Finalizer_ could be, when he receives a private message on his datapad.

_Ren, Kylo (No Rank): Meet me in my quarters ASAP._

Hux’s initial instinct, as always when it comes to his troublesome co-commander, is to ignore him. But, then again, it could be that Ren has something worth telling him for once. Something related to his recent mission, perhaps, although why Ren couldn’t just write it into his debrief report like every other person on board—

Hux rolls his eyes—mentally, of course, because he would never allow his discipline to break in front of his junior officers—and turns to Peavey. “Captain, I must attend to an urgent matter. You have the bridge.” Not for long, hopefully—Hux never likes leaving his ship in the hands of anyone else, and especially not an old Imperial crony of his father’s, but needs must.

Whatever Ren has to tell him, it had better be worth his time.

Hux finds himself in front of Ren’s door soon enough, but he doesn’t even need to press the intercom button before the door slides open and Ren himself is in the doorway, still in his mask and robes. If he hadn’t seen the man take the helmet and the robes off before, and been able to touch all his skin for himself, Hux would wonder if he was actually human underneath.

“Lord Ren. You had something to tell me? That couldn’t be sent via the private channels?”

“You should see for yourself,” Ren says, and backs away from the door enough to let Hux step inside.

It’s not the first time, nor will it be the last, that Hux has been in here. The last time, he had his feet in the air as Ren fucked the life out of him on that ridiculously small bed, but it’s not like Hux spends much time paying attention to the other furnishings, or lack thereof, in the room.

He also tries not to pay attention to the burnt helmet of Darth Vader on its plinth, nor the table with the tray of what Ren claims are the ashes of his enemies’ bodies. Some things are just a little too morbid, even for a First Order officer who had his father assassinated in a terribly painful and drawn-out manner.

But today, it’s impossible to not notice the tray of ashes, because of the orange cat that’s laying on it and getting dust all over her soft belly.

He whips around to glare at Ren, stupid helmet be damned. “You stole my cat?!” How dare he?! This is why they’d never been in Hux’s room for their trysts, which will absolutely _not_ be happening in the future, if Ren had planned on using _Millicent_ , the most innocent of creatures, as _blackmail_ —

“I didn’t—she was already in here when I returned! Sitting on the tray!” Ren protests, although he sounds ridiculous coming through the voice modulator. Maybe he realizes it too, because he takes his helmet off immediately after. “I didn’t even know she was yours!”

“ _You_ called _me_! About an urgent matter!” Hux snaps, turning back to Millicent, who looks entirely too pleased with herself and what she’s done, tail swishing happily as she looks back at him. He hopes she chewed more holes in Ren’s ratty cape and cowl while she was in here—but it’s best not to be within saber range of Ren when he discovers that. “Absolutely not, you little monster, we’re not staying here,” he tells her, picking her up off the tray. He’s proud of himself for only wincing a little as Millicent settles in his arms with an indignant mewl and gets ash and dust all over his clean uniform. He’ll have to change into a fresh one after returning her to their quarters.

“I— I may have read her thoughts. Just to figure out where she was supposed to be. She was hungry, thinking about food, and you set up that automatic feeder for her? She was remembering you filling it up,” Ren says finally, watching Hux brush soot off Millicent’s fur. “I didn’t know you had a cat.”

Perhaps Hux is imagining it, but Ren sounds… petulant? Or more petulant than usual, he supposes, but about Millicent? She is a fine cat, certainly, but still, simply a cat with no special powers to be jealous of. She eats dry kibble that Hux has delivered with the _Finalizer’s_ supplies, and she enjoys chasing small feathered toys and the red beam of light from a small pointer device that Hux keeps in his desk drawer. And while there are regulations against junior officers and the troopers having pets, or any type of unauthorized flora or fauna on board, Hux is the senior commander of the _Finalizer_. He is allowed certain privileges befitting his rank, and Millicent would be a worthy companion to any First Order commander.

“Very few people on board do,” Hux sniffs, stroking Millicent’s soft fur between her ears even though he can’t feel it through his gloves. The motion itself is comforting, as is Millicent’s purring response, that’s all. “Mitaka knows—he checks on her when I’m off-ship. Phasma does as well. That’s it.” And now Ren too, he supposes.

“And me,” Ren echoes. “Is this why you never let me in your quarters?”

“I never let you in my quarters because you’d inevitably destroy something valuable and I’d have to scramble to repair it,” Hux corrects him with a roll of his eyes. Here, where it’s just the two of them, he’s allowed to show his disdain. “But yes, she is part of the reason.”

The truth is, there is no need to hand Ren yet another one of his weaknesses on a silver platter. In his short time on the _Finalizer_ , Ren has already battered his way through too many of Hux’s defenses—he doesn’t need to give Ren more ammunition to use against him. Falling into his bed is already bad enough. Let him fight his way into Hux’s mind and thoughts and memories, if he’s that desperate to know about his miserable past—but he won’t, because Supreme Leader Snoke would be furious with him. Hux is relying on that protection, and on Ren’s own sentimentality, for now.

Ren’s eyes flick down to Millicent, then back up to Hux as he shifts her into a more comfortable hold. For such a small creature, she can be quite a substantial armful if not carried properly. “She’s important to you.”

Hux sighs in exasperation. “Yes. I wouldn’t keep her on the ship otherwise.” He didn’t have any experience with pets, but for whatever reason, he found himself taking the small orange kitten that stowed away in the ship’s cargo hold from a resupply shuttle, and sending the troopers who’d discovered her in the first place to reconditioning.

And now, Millicent is an essential part of his routine and schedule. He wakes before his shifts start to feed her and make sure she has a fresh water source, uses his breaks to come back to check on her, and when he works at his desk late into his rest periods, she is always there with him—if not sleeping on his lap, then in her soft bed next to his desk chair.

“I wouldn’t harm her,” Ren says, more insistently now. “Even now, when I found her—I called you right away, didn’t I?”

Ren has a point, as much as Hux hates to admit it. He would’ve expected Ren to immediately put Millicent out of the nearest airlock for breaking in—and how did she do that in the first place?—and then sleeping on his sacred Sith ashes—he’s done worse to the _Finalizer’s_ consoles for less.

“I assume all this pleading is because my bed is more comfortable than yours?” Hux asks dryly, looking over at the slab of durasteel and the thin mattress that Ren calls a bed. He’s never quite sure if it’s the sex or the bed that makes his back ache after he and Ren meet.

Ren shrugs. “You wince every time you sit up from it.”

“Your concern for my comfort is unnecessary,” Hux deflects, then he catches the way Ren frowns. Right. New Republic morals. “But I suppose if Millicent isn’t a problem, we can also consider my quarters an appropriate meeting place.”

“No, uh, Millicent isn’t a problem,” Ren says after an uncharacteristic pause. If Hux didn’t know better, he’d say Ren was taken off-guard. By the name, perhaps. But Hux, of course, would name his pet something dignified and worthy of respect. ‘Millicent’ is a strong Imperial-era name, and fitting for his cat.

“Excellent.” Hux shifts his armful of warm purring animal again, this time to hide her under his greatcoat as best as he can. She’s too large for it now, frankly, and she squirms unhappily, but he’ll do his best and send any troopers that cross his path to reconditioning if he has to. “I will take her back to where she belongs, then.”

He turns to the door before he looks back at Ren, still standing in the middle of the room. “Oh, and Ren? We’ll do a test run. My quarters tonight, after beta shift.”

**Author's Note:**

> I'm on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/parttimewonders) and [Tumblr](https://part-timewonders.tumblr.com/).


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